Enhancing glioma therapy via intranasal administration of FOF1-ATPase motor-embedded chromatophore nanorockets.

Brain-targeted drug delivery is crucial both for achieving highly efficient treatment of brain-related diseases and for avoiding severe side effects of systemic drug distribution. However, such obstacles from the administration site to the brain as mucus clearance and blood brain barrier challenge the practical applications. Herein we propose dual drug-loaded chromatophore nanorockets (CNs) driven by FOF1-ATPase motors to promote brain targetability for orthotopic glioma therapy. The FOF1-ATPase motor-embedded CNs were obtained from Thermus thermophilus, after which two drugs (temozolomide and curcumin) were successfully loaded onto the chromatophores. Both the in vitro and in vivo studies revealed that the established CNs played a key role in enhancing the nasal mucus penetration and in improving the brain targeting and glioma therapy. This study demonstrates that the chromatophore nanorockets with FOF1-ATPase motors is a promising alternative to powerfully deliver drugs intranasally for glioma therapy.